“This is good, thank you,” Jimmy said, as he chewed on the protein bar and potato chips. But he hesitated when Whip offered him a drink from his water. That I could understand.
“Whip, do you live here alone?” Jimmy asked.
Whip nodded, then reached out and squeezed Jimmy’s arm.
“Do you know where Las Vegas is?” I asked.
The boy’s eyes grew brighter, if that were possible. He nodded vigorously.
“Have you ever been to Las Vegas?” Jimmy asked.
Whip stopped nodding, he fell silent, just stood there, not even eating. The light in his eyes faded. Seeing how the question had stung, Jimmy quickly added, “Would you like to go to Las Vegas with us?”
Whip got so excited he jumped up and down. The response made Jimmy smile but it worried me. I leaned over and whispered in Jimmy’s ear.
“We’ve known this child only a minute and we’re talking about taking him out of his natural environment. We should discuss this. It’s obvious that someone’s bringing him food on a regular basis. How are they going to feel the next time they come here and Whip’s gone?”
Jimmy shrugged. “We can take him for a visit, we don’t have to keep him there.”
“You might end up freaking out his caregiver.”
“We’ll leave a note saying we took him.”
“Great. Will you leave your cell number?”
Jimmy hesitated. “That would probably be a mistake.”
“Duh. We can’t leave our names or our numbers.” I paused. “The Lapras use these towns because of their high levels of background radiation. They use them to mutate people. For all we know, Whip is one of their experiments.”
“He looks like a discarded experiment, if you ask me,” Jimmy said. “Look, I agree we have to keep an eye out for these evil guys you told me about. But even if they are feeding this child, they’re abusing him. He needs a bath and he needs a doctor to check him out. Didn’t you say your father was flying in today? Your father in this world?”
“That’s what he told me last night. But . . .”
“I understand. You haven’t seen this version of your dad in years. You don’t know if he’s going to show.”
“Exactly.”
“Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he’s coming. He can give Whip a thorough physical without us having to take the boy to an official clinic.”
“I have never seen this paternal side of you before.”
Jimmy rubbed the boy’s head. “There’s a lot of things about me you don’t know.”
I sighed. “All right, we’ll take the boy with us. But on the trip back to Vegas, please try to make it clear to him that he’s only coming with us to visit the city. Neither of us is in a position to adopt this child.”
Jimmy nodded. “I agree. Anything else?”
“I definitely want to leave a note for whoever brings his food.”
Tearing a page from Whip’s notepad, and borrowing one of his pens, I came up with a note that stated the basics but which I hoped would not place us in danger.
WE HAVE WHIP AND ARE TAKING GOOD CARE OF HIM. DON’T WORRY, HE WILL BE RETURNED SOON.
“What do you think?” I asked Jimmy.
He frowned. “It wouldn’t reassure me if I was a parent.”
“What kind of parent would leave him all alone out here?”
“An asshole.” Jimmy stood and offered Whip his hand. “Let’s load him in the Expedition and get out of here.”
“Why are you suddenly in such a hurry to leave?”
Jimmy turned and looked me straight in the eye, and in that moment I felt he was every bit as connected as I was. “Because I just realized we have found exactly what it is you came out here to find. And he’s more important than either of us realizes.”
Jimmy’s words touched me deeply. Silly, I know, but I had a warm glow in my chest as I watched the two of them walking hand in hand to the SUV.
CHAPTER TWELVE
ON THE DRIVE BACK TO Las Vegas, jimmy challenged me to call my father and see if he was flying into Las Vegas as promised. I don’t know if Jimmy was testing the validity of my story or my father’s word or both. In this world, the man had not sent me a birthday card in years.
I had to go through Dr. Michael Major’s emergency service to get his cell number. Even then they handed it out reluctantly. I have to admit I felt nervous dialing the number. The previous night, I had spent hours talking to him, but that had been in witch world, and the rules were different there.
Fortunately, he answered promptly. “Hello?”
“Hi. It’s your long-lost daughter.”
He didn’t seem surprised. Obviously the transition from one world to the other was nothing to him. “Where are you?” he asked.
“In the desert, driving back to town.” I paused. “Where are you?”
“I got to Vegas two hours ago. I called your hotel but Alex said you went out with Jimmy.”
“He’s with me now.”
“Did you try explaining what happened to you?”
“Sure.”
“How did that go over?”
“Like a ton of bricks. But I think he’s opening up to the possibility that there’s nothing wrong with me a lobotomy won’t fix,” I said.
“Don’t worry, I have experience in this area. I’ll talk to him. But I have to be careful no one knows where I’m staying. I’ll text you my address in a few minutes, using an encrypted phone. Still, when you reach town I want you to drive around for a while, see if you’re being followed. Try to sense if someone is tailing you. If they are, park your car at a hotel and hurry through the casino floor and immediately grab a taxi on the other side. Repeat this trick a few times—it’s the best way to lose a tail.” He paused. “When you’re absolutely sure you’re in the clear, come see me.”
“I’m glad you’re here, Dad.” I found it interesting that he had told me to sense if I was being followed. He had to know of my intuition gene, and that it was already beginning to work.
“I promised you I was coming,” he said.
“I know, it’s just . . . It will be great to see you in this world.”
“I told you, I only stayed away to keep you and your mother safe. But for now, I don’t want to talk any more on this phone than we have to. Expect my message soon.”
My father hung up suddenly. Jimmy was smiling.
“I’m impressed,” he said.
“What impressed you more, my lifting up this SUV or my talking to my father?”
“Hearing you and your dad talking was more of a miracle.” Jimmy reached over and stroked my arm. Whip was sound asleep in the backseat. “How come you didn’t tell him about our guest?”
“I’m beginning to get the impression these witches, on both sides, behave like spies. He doesn’t trust cell phones. In fact, he wants us to make sure we’re not being tailed before we go near him.”
“No one’s going to tail us. They’d have to pick us up the second we drove back into town.”
Someone latched on to us the moment we reentered Vegas—a black Mercedes sedan. Swearing under his breath, Jimmy tried to race away from them but that didn’t work. Finally he swung up to the front of Circus Circus, to valet parking, and the three of us jumped out, grabbed the parking ticket, and raced across the floor of the casino. I was pleased to see Jimmy pick Whip up and run like the devil. I had given the child my shirt to cover him—I had a tank top on underneath—and it went a long way toward hiding Whip’s filthy rags. We caught a taxi outside the back of the hotel and took the cab down to the Tropicana, where we repeated the process.
By then we were pretty sure we were in the clear. Still, we took a third taxi to my father’s place, a rented condo in a high-priced complex four blocks off the Strip. It was not a hotel but the place appeared to function as one. A person could rent a condo for as little as one week, or as long as a year. I assumed my father knew the best places to hide in the enemy’s territory.
My father looked the same as he had years ago. He hadn’t aged a day. He was dressed casually but still projected an aura of a successful doctor. Indeed, he radiated a power that Jimmy couldn’t ignore. My boyfriend’s grip on reality was trembling. Each brick I removed from his self-constructed wall brought him closer and closer to full acceptance of my story.
My father embraced us both, but held on to me the longest. He kissed my forehead. “I missed you,” he whispered.
“You saw me last night,” I said.
“I missed this version.”
I hugged him tighter. “Not as much as I missed you.”
He finally let me go. “There is much we need to discuss.” He gestured to Whip. “First, tell me about this little guy.”
I explained where we had found Whip and why we’d decided to take him back to Las Vegas with us. My father was intrigued with his ability to write and puzzled that he couldn’t speak. A brief exam revealed nothing wrong with his vocal cords.
But it revealed something else.
A little detail that Jimmy and I had been idiots to miss.
Whip had a tail!
Jesus Christ, I thought.
It came off the base of his spine. It was almost as long as his body was tall, and it tapered to a point that allowed him to curl it into a fully functioning finger. The bulk of the tail was as thick as one of his bony legs, however, it was solid muscle and cartilage, free of any bones I could see.
Whip managed to hide it by carefully wrapping it around his waist, beneath his clothes. My father was light-years ahead of Jimmy and me when it came to understanding such mutations. He asked for Whip’s pens and notepad and handed them to the child.
“Do you like to use your tail to write?” my father asked.
Whip effortlessly picked up a pen with the end of his tail and opened his notepad with his hands. He wrote ten times faster and clearer than he had out in Inferno.
I like to use my tail to do most things, he wrote. But I know I have to be careful to keep my butt secret.
We all laughed at his choice of words.
His tail was dragging down a pair of underwear my father had given him to wear but Whip was nevertheless doing his best to remain covered. I was impressed. Given where he had grown up, I had assumed he was devoid of most social skills.
“When we’re with others, we’ll do our best to keep your tail hidden,” my father told him.
Thank you, Whip wrote.
“Does it embarrass you?” my father asked.
Not when I’m alone. But I know I’m the only one who has one.
“Do you live alone in Inferno?” Jimmy asked. “The town where we found you?”
There are others, but most are not nice to me.
“Who brings your food to you?” my father asked.
Frankie. A scary man.
“Frank,” I gushed. “That might be the Lapra I spoke to last night on the phone in witch world. Whip, does Frankie have a deep voice?”
Yes. He yells at me.
“Why does he yell at you?” Jimmy asked.
He says I’m ugly. He throws rocks at me, if I get near him.
“If he doesn’t like you, why does he bring you food?”
Whip hesitated. She makes him bring it.
“Who is she?” my father asked.
Whip shook his head. It didn’t matter how my father tried framing the question, Whip continued to refuse to answer.
My father took him in a bathroom and gave the child a bath, which Whip appeared to enjoy immensely. My dad also gave him a much more thorough exam. When he was finished, my father returned to the living room, shutting the bedroom door carefully behind him.
“I have bad news,” he said. “Whip’s far from healthy. The marks on his arms and legs are from cellulitis. That’s a form of bacteria that spreads beneath the outer skin layers. I’ve put him on an IV drip and am giving him antibiotics. And I gave him a mild sedative to help him sleep.”
“He can’t just take a pill form of the antibiotics?” I asked.
“The infection’s too far advanced. We need to kill it now. But I’m more worried about his lungs. His breathing’s poor. I need to get a chest X-ray and do some other tests. It’s possible he has tuberculosis.”
“Isn’t that infectious?” I asked, privately wondering if we could use our witch genes to heal the boy.
“Yes. The child might have to be quarantined.”
“I can help take care of him if you can get your hands on the medicine he needs,” Jimmy said.
To hell with that, I thought. I like the boy, but TB?
My father smiled at my boyfriend. “That’s very noble of you. Let me do a few more tests before we decide whether we have to move him out of town.”
“If he’s under the control of the Lapras, then we definitely have to get him out of here,” Jimmy said.
“It might be a mistake to interfere in their business,” my father said carefully. “At least when it comes to this boy.”
“From what I’ve heard, you specialize in messing with them,” Jimmy said.
My father sat down and sighed. “True. But my partners and I try to keep our eyes fixed on the big picture.”
Jimmy was offended. “So Whip doesn’t count because he’s just a kid with a tail?”
“Jimmy,” I said. “My dad’s doing what he can. There’s so much we don’t know. Like who is this ‘she’ he mentioned.”
My father nodded and caught my eye. “You felt something when he brought her up,” he said.
I nodded. “Yeah. Something dark and creepy.”
“Since I haven’t died and seen the light, I can only see the small picture,” Jimmy said. “But do I need to remind you guys that it was her intuition that led us to Whip?”
My father looked surprised, but I felt I needed to show my support for what Jimmy was saying. “I didn’t know why I had to go out there. I just felt compelled. And after we found Whip, the compulsion left me.”
My father considered. “That’s interesting.”
Jimmy crossed the room and sat on a chair near my father. He leaned toward him as he spoke, and I knew what was coming.
“I need to experience what Jessie’s experienced,” he said. “Until I do, I’m useless to her. I can’t tap into my powers and I can’t reach this other world you keep talking about.”
“The other world you don’t believe in,” I teased.
“That’s not fair. I’ve swallowed a remarkable amount of insanity since we left town this morning. I think I deserve some credit. But the only way I can get a grasp on this stuff is to become a witch myself.”
“Has Jessie explained that you lack the healing gene?” my father asked Jimmy.
“Yes. But that’s no barrier to a man like you. I’ve watched enough medical shows, I know what a heart surgeon does. Every day you operate, you stop a person’s heart and put them on a heart-lung machine. I bet that procedure is close enough to the death experience to activate my witch genes.”
My father didn’t respond. I had to prod him.
“Would it work, Dad?” I asked.
My father sighed and shook his head. “Frankly, I’ve never tried it before. It might work just fine. But it’s a risk I’m not allowed to take.”
“Are all witches lacking in the healing gene forbidden to join your secret society?” Jimmy asked bitterly.
I was surprised Jimmy was so anxious to risk death when he’d made such a big point of being there for Huck. But the more I thought about it, I realized I’d feel the same way. Jimmy kept hearing from us about invisible enemies and dangers. He probably felt he could not protect his son unless he could confront them directly.
“No. But like Jessie, you’re special, you’re unique, and a lot of that deals with your relationship with my daughter.”
Jimmy paused. “I don’t understand.”
My father looked at me. “You haven’t told him about Lara?”
“No. He got so upset when I tried to convinc
e him that Huck was still alive, I saw no point.”
“Who’s Lara?” Jimmy asked.
I reached out and took Jimmy’s hand. “Our daughter.”
He snorted. “Gimme a break.”
“It’s true,” my father said. “There’s no Huck in witch world for the simple reason that you were never with Kari in that world. You stayed with Jessica and when she accidentally got pregnant and had a baby girl, you two named her Lara. Only the child wasn’t an accident, not to the Council. It had been planned for centuries.”
Jimmy frowned and looked to me to clarify the situation but I shook my head. Pieces of this were news to me. “Please don’t tell me that Jimmy and I are part of a breeding program,” I said.
“Don’t act surprised,” my father said. “You suspected as much when we spoke last night. You were told again and again how extremely rare it was to have seven witch genes. You were told five was also rare. Surely it must have occurred to you how unlikely it was that the one guy in the whole world you happen to meet and fall in love with has almost as many genes as you do. Not only that, Jimmy’s genes are complementary. The three that you’re missing, he has them.”
“What are they?” Jimmy asked.
“That’s not important at this time,” my father said.
“So that’s why Lara was born with all ten,” I gasped.
“Yes,” my father said. “You two were deliberately put near each other. It was even arranged that you’d share a few classes. But we didn’t have to overdo it in that department because we knew you would spontaneously be drawn to each other. On some level, witches usually recognize each other.”
“Why did Jimmy leave me for Kari in this world?” I asked.
“I was with her before I was with you,” Jimmy said.
“True. But you went back to her.”